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Summary

Old Street/Bridge Street in Reading is shown on a survey by Amyce dated 1552.

Monument Type(s):

• ROAD (Post Medieval to 21st Century - 1540 AD to 2050 AD)

Description

The earliest known and located map of the Bridge Street area is a survey by Amyce dated 1552. The 1552 survey records Tanne Lock to the east of Seven Bridges, on an apparently modest water course (now the River Kennet); the main stream (to the south of The Anchorage) forming the mill race to St. Giles Mill (also known as Town Mill). The alignment of Seven Bridges on St. Marys Church to the north and its alignment on subsequent maps strongly suggests that the current Bridge Street is exactly on the ancient roadway. Speed's map of 1611 suggests that the area both west and east of Bridge Street may have been occupied by water meadows. Structures are recorded on various maps to the east of Bridge Street (Seven Bridges), but land to the west appears primarily to have been meadow or orchard until the 17th/18th century. Development in the 17th and 18th century took the form of numerous outbuildings and hardstandings associated with a wharfage on the Kennett <1>.

<1> Lawson Price, 1993, Archaeological Assessment of land at Bridge Street, Reading, Berkshire, Pages 7 & 9 (Unpublished document). SRM13790.

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